Porath Becomes First Layman to Head L.A. Catholic School System

In the watershed years of the late 1960s, a young, Jesuit-educated philosophy major dutifully signed up for a stint as a volunteer teacher in an inner-city Catholic school in St. Louis. He surprised himself by staying to launch a career in education.

“I don’t know that I ever made a conscious choice” to build a career in parochial schools, “but I wouldn’t change any of it now,” said Jerome R. Porath, who this month became the first layman to head the Archdiocese of Los Angeles schools, the fourth-largest Catholic school system in the nation.

“I found I enjoyed what I did, and I saw clearly the benefits Catholic schools brought to the inner-city,” Porath said.

He finished his master’s program in philosophy but switched to education when it came time to earn his doctorate at St. Louis University.

Porath, 45, comes to the 101,000-student Los Angeles system with strong views and experiences honed as Catholic schools superintendent in Albany, N.Y., and Washington, D.C., and in leadership roles with regional and national education organizations.

Having moved from the classroom into administration at a time when education leadership posts were almost always held by the clergy, he was assistant superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of St. Louis when the top spot opened up in 1978. It went to a priest.

“At that time, the top posts in Catholic schools were held by priests or occasionally a nun but almost never by a lay person,” Porath said during a recent interview in his new office.

A mentor who believed that Porath had what it takes offered to help him look for a superintendency in a diocese more willing to accept a lay person in the post. That same year, Porath became superintendent of the Diocese of Albany, then moved to the top schools job for the Archdiocese of Washington in 1985. He oversaw schools for that 30,000-student system until chosen for Los Angeles earlier this year after a nationwide search.

Citing Porath’s experience in various roles with several Catholic school systems, Sister Cecilia Louise Moore, head of educational and formational services for the archdiocese, said Porath was chosen because he was the best qualified candidate.

From the second floor of the archdiocese’s education building near downtown Los Angeles, Porath supervises a staff of 20 professionals who assist administrators of a highly decentralized system that takes in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Each of the 232 elementary schools (most of which are run by parish churches) and 55 high schools (33 run by the archdiocese and 22 operated by orders of priests or nuns) has its own budget, does its own hiring and sets its own curriculum and policies.

“By history and by choice, we have remained a very decentralized system. We believe in having programs adapted to the special needs of each school and its community,” Porath said.

His role is to “make the principal of each one of the schools as successful as possible,” by providing expertise and guidance in hiring, staff development, curriculum, finance and planning without imposing “a lot of rules and regulations,” he said.

Since arriving in Los Angeles on Labor Day, Porath’s weekdays have been spent “going from one meeting to another” as he tries to get a handle on his vast and varied new territory. Weekends are for attending church, house hunting in several parts of the county, and catching up on paperwork at the office. Porath’s wife, Andrea, a kindergarten teacher at a Catholic school in Silver Spring, Md., and five children have remained back East while he gets settled--and until the family can decide which community to call home.

Porath said one of the special strengths of a Catholic education is its strong emphasis on moral values.

“It’s the integration of the religious with the academic, the sacred with the secular,” Porath said. “It’s the understanding that you really can’t compartmentalize your life.”

His experience and interests--which include alternative funding, long-term planning and finding ways to attract and develop teachers and administrators “who share the vision and have the skills to carry out the mission of Catholic education”--dovetail with Los Angeles’ needs and goals.

While the other biggest Catholic school systems--Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia--have suffered enrollment declines in recent years, the Los Angeles system has experienced a slight, albeit lopsided, increase.

Porath said many schools in some parts of Los Angeles, including the San Fernando Valley, have waiting lists of 100 or more, but there are empty seats in some inner-city classrooms. Many parents on the Eastside and in South-Central Los Angeles want to send their children to Catholic schools, Porath said, but cannot afford the tuition, which averages $1,100 a year at elementary campuses.

The archdiocese is mounting a campaign to raise $100 million for scholarships, which Porath said puts Los Angeles at the forefront of efforts to make a Catholic education accessible to all who want it.

“I believe we need to look for ways to continue to build networks, with public and other private schools and with the business and civic community, as well as tie into other church structures,” Porath said in summing up his formula for strengthening Catholic schools.